The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-02-02

vantages from which we can in
crease our fertility. Now with the
advantage in quality and climate
and equal facility for producing
plant food, need we, can ace COM
pete with them? Good sense answ-
ers, yes. Our hills that seem to ex-
pose the land to destruction by wash
ing may be utilized to aid drainage
and be sources Of profit.
Competition and development are
kindred terms. Where the former
is the latter am. There is no COM
petition with impossibilities, but how
are we to set limit to them Where
do they begin or end? Maine does
not compete with Florida in
cotton. 1t is impossible one would
say; neither does Florida compete
with Maine in ice, another will
say. Florida cotton makes Coats
six cord spool thread, used in
Maine; and Maine ice will kill the
wiggletails in the malarial districts
Of Florida. An exchange with each
other appears to be a necessity, but
science has it otherwise. Some
scientific person, likely from Maine,
has invented a refrigerator that will
produce ice down in Florida, at a
small cost, that beats Maine ice two
to one in convenience. Necessity is
a powerful incentive to genius. If
ice had no demand where the seasons
are too warm to freeze, yankee in
genuity would never have construct
ed freezer for warm latitudes. The
North being the producer of ice by
natural means, brought out the ma
chine. Now it is with the South
who are better skilled with fibrous
material to discover something that
by steam Then would the Minnea-
polls, St. Louis and Richmond Mills
! VIII frour4sf np ytusS to -ssrppty the,
| place of cotton. Representatives, are
more rare than maay think. To say
it is impossible to compete success
fully with the Northwest in raising
wheat may turn out like the ice
business to be unfounded, in fact,
when thought and science get to-
gether on the subject. 1t is to cuI-
tivate these human traits that we
are or ought to be concerned about.
Get them together on the wheat
subject and the first you know we
will be making as many bushels to
the acre as the Northwest, and have
the advantage in quality. This is
no stretch Of fancy, but living posi-
h r t,cf
the effort. All Of US are. ready and
willing for such results to come
about, but the penacea will remain
in the distance unless most of us
take hold and work for it.
1t is found by computation, made
on scientific principles, that the
great falls of Niagara would run the
machinery Of the world if it was APP
piled properly. No one knows but
this awe-inspiring cataract may yet
be harnessed and by the transmits
sion of it's power with MANILA rope
and endless chain belts span this
continent, running through North
Carolina, furnishing power sufficient
to run every vestige Of machinery
needed for stationary purposes, turn
ed to any angle by loose pullies,
idlers, snub-pullies and carrier pull
lies to guide it, and do away with
Atlas-Corliss and all other engines
and save the fuel for other purposes.
ct would take all the coal consumed
in the world to make such a power
find a competitor that they would
dread, and North Carolina fine wheat
be converted into as fine flour as
ever entered human lips, and all the
crowned heads and nobility of the
world become our purchasers, and
all power needed for domestic pur-
poses, furnished on the line from
the sewing machine and churn to the
mammoth saw, grist. iron and cot
ton mills.
The moral of all this is the cap
italist who makes the venture to
utilize this power: and succeeds will
place his name higher up on the
scroll of fame than any American
predecessor has hitherto done, or
than any successor will be likely to
have an opportunity to do.
What is fraught with more dis
taste and version to the uneducated
than to see a tyro figuring on the
black board for the solution of a diff